Let free market guide health insurance

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio (left) joined House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of Calif., center, and Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., meets with reporters on Capitol Hill. The Republicans kept up their their criticism of the Affordable Care Act, focusing on President Obama's promise to Americans that they could keep their private health care plans if they preferred them over Obamacare.

With the implosion of the Affordable Care Act, many ask what would Republicans do differently. There is a notion out there that government has to be involved with most or all of health care. One would hope that Republicans would respond to that question with letting the free market do its job.

Elimination of barriers that limit insurance companies' access to markets would be good for consumers. If you look now, the ACA is destroying choice by paring all the different plans down to just three. Who would be happy if there were just three types of cars you could drive?

Allow Americans to have health savings accounts with no limits on contributions. The $500 or $600 a month some plans cost could go into an HSA; that $6,000 to $7,000 a year could be used to buy a cheaper catastrophic plan and save money. And since the government already offers the Earned Income Tax Credit, it would be easy and cheap to set up HSAs for the poor. Companies could put money in HSAs and switch from employee-driven to consumer-driven health care. It would encourage people to take care of themselves as the money saved would go to their bottom line.

Allowing people to have a choice and be involved in the cost of their health care is a way to drive down costs.

As the great Milton Friedman, once said "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand." We should encourage the repeal of the ACA and limit government intrusion in our lives. Economic freedom has made us the great people we are today and one should remember that in these trying times.

Donald Webb

Beech Grove

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Let free market guide health insurance

With the implosion of the Affordable Care Act, many ask what would Republicans do differently. There is a notion out there that government has to be involved with most or all of health care.